Say It (If It's Worth Saving Me)
by TheEndsongAbyssXV
Summary: When a string of gruesome murders rock the city of Tokyo, it's up the Detective's Ace and Zoro, with the help of Medical Examiner Trafalgar Law, to solve them. But when one case hits too close to home, the trio realizes no one is safe. Not even them. (AU. Zoro/OC. Law/OC) (Rated M for gore, language, and adult situations).
1. Chapter 1

Today is the day they will find her body.

I know how it will happen. I can picture, quite vividly, the sequence of events that will lead up to the discovery. By nine o' clock, the ladies at Anchor Travel Agency will be sitting at their desks, their elegantly manicured fingers tapping at computer keyboards, booking a Mediterranean cruise for Mrs. Smith, a ski vacation in Aspen for Mr. and Mrs. de la Cruz. And for the Clocks, something different this year, something exotic, perhaps Fiji or Madagascar, but nothing too rugged, oh no, adventure must, above all, be comfortable. That is the motto at Anchor: "Comfortable adventures." It's a busy agency, and the phone rings often.

It will not take long for the women to notice that Diana is not at her desk.

One of them will ring Diana's Back Bat residence, but the phone will ring and ring and ring, unanswered. Maybe Diana is in the shower and can't hear it. Or maybe she's already left for work and is running late because of the morning traffic rush. A dozen perfectly benign possibilities will run through the caller's mind. But as the day wears on, and repeated calls go unanswered, other, more disturbing possibilities, will come to mind.

I expect that it is the building's superintendent who will let Diana's coworker into the apartment. I can see him nervously rattling his keys as he says, "Yer her friend, right? Yew sure she won't mind? 'Cause I'm gonna hafta tell her I let you in."

They walk into the apartment and the coworker calls out: "Diana! Are you home?" They start up the hallway, past the framed travel posters, the superintendent right behind her to make sure she doesn't steal anything.

Then he looks into the bedroom, and he no longer worries about something as petty as theft. He only wants to get out of the apartment before he throws up.

I would like to be there when the police arrive, but I'm not stupid. I know they will study every single vehicle that creeps by, every face that stares from the gathering of spectators on the street. They know my urge to return is strong. Even now, as I sit in Starbucks, watching the day brighten outside the window, I feel that room calling to me. Calling me back to what lies inside. But I am like Ulysses, safely lashed to my ship's mast, tearing for the Soren's song. But I will not dash myself against the rocks. I will not make that mistake.

Instead I sit at a table drinking my coffee, while outside, the city of Tokyo comes awake.

A siren screams in the distance, calling to me. I feel like Ulysses, straining against the ropes, but I hold fast.

Today they will find her body.

Today they will know we are back.


	2. Chapter 2

(Just a note, I am actually a medical student right now, training to be a forensic investigator, so most of what will be in this story, is stuff I've actually seen. It will be descriptive, and it will be nasty. Enjoy.)

Detective Portgaz D. Ace disliked the smell of latex, and as he snapped on the gloves, releasing a puff of talcum, he felt the usual anticipatory twinge of nausea. The odor was linked to the most unpleasant aspects of his job, and like one of Pavlov's dogs, trained to salivate on cue, he'd come to associate that rubbery scent with inevitable accompaniment of blood and bodily fluids. And olfactory warning to brace himself.

And so he did, as he stood outside the autopsy room. He had walked straight in from the heat, and the sweat was already chilling on his skin. It was July 12th, a humid and hazy Friday afternoon. Across the city of Tokyo, air conditioners rattled and dripped, and tempers were flaring. On the Chiiza Bridge, would be backed up, fleeing north to the cool forests and beaches on Hokkaido. But Ace would not be among them. He had been called back from his vacation with his brothers to view the horror he had no wish to see.

/I could be drinking and having a good time with Luffy and Sabo, but noooo. I have to go to work./ he cursed silently as he pushed through the doors into the room.

The draped corpse lay on the table-a woman, by the shape of it. Ace avoided looking too long at the victim and instead on the living people in the room. Dr. Trafalgar Law, the Medical Examiner, and his assistant were assembling instruments on a tray. Across the room stood Roronoa Zoro, who was also from the Tokyo Homicide Unit. Twenty-eight years old, Zoro was a lithe and well-muscled man. He'd been an olympic swordsman in his youth, and worked out vigorously in his free time. His expression was a cross of annoyance and anger. Ace wasn't sure if he liked the other detective, or if Zoro liked him. Try kept their interactions strictly business.

"Sorry about the fireworks tournament," Law said to Ace. "Looks liked your vacation's cancelled."

"You sure it's our boy again?"

In answer, Law reached for the drape and pulled it back. "Her name is Elena Ortiz. A traveller from America."

"He always goes after the foreigners." The assistant said.

Although Ace had been prepared for the sight, his first glimpse of the woman was like a physical blow. The woman's black hair, matted stiff with blood, stuck out like porcupine quills from a face the color of blue veined marble. Her lips were parted, as though frozen in mid-sentence. The blood had been washed off the body already, and her wounds gaped in purplish marks across the gray canvas of skin.

There were two visible wounds. One was a deep slash across the throat, extending from ear-to-ear, slicing through the carotid artery and laying the cartilage in the neck wide open. The coup-de-grâce. The second slash was low on the abdomen. This wound had not been meant to kill, but to serve another purpose entirely.

Ace swallowed hard. "I can see why I was called back."

"I'm lead on this one." Zoro said, and Ace heard a note of warning in the statement. The man was protecting his turf.

"I've done all the preliminary work, but feel free to check the corpse." Law walked over to a table and held out a clipboard. "Tré already filled these out, so if there's a mistake, it's her fault."

"Oi!" The young assistant from earlier responded with a rude had gesture and walked over to the corpse with a probe. "I did everything you told me to, so the mistake would be yours, not mine."

Ace stared at the body, and he felt the familiar pang of anger/sorrow for the dead. Anger that the victim had been killed, and sorrow because she was so young. He looked at the well-manicured hands and frowned.

"She was immobilized."

Law nodded. "Duct tape. She still had all of her jewelry on, so robbery wasn't the motive."

"What jewelry?" Zoro asked, turning to look at the corpse.

Tré, Law's assistant, flipped through her clipboard. "A necklace, rings and ear studs. The jewelry box in the bedroom was also untouched."

Zoro looked at the horizontal band of bruising across Elena's hips. "Shit, her torso was immobilized too."

"Mouth too." Law added.

"Jesus." Ace released a deep breath as a flashes of another young woman who bore the same, meat/red slashed across her throat and stomach. "Diana Sterling." He murmured.

Law held out a Manila folder. "I already pulled her autopsy reports."

"He's improved," Tré said, staring at the corpse with wide eyes. Ace looked at her. She was tiny, almost lost in the Finding Nemo scrubs she wore. Her brown hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail, and she stood on her tiptoes to reach up to the medical cabinet. "The technique."

Law nodded. " What we have here is a transverse cut. Surgeons call this a Maylard incision. It means the abdominal wall was cut layer-by-layer." He turned to his assistant, who was fiddling with the keys in her pocket. "How was it done, Tré?"

Zoro smirked when the girl didn't respond. She remained oblivious for a few seconds until Law poked her cheek with a spinal needle.

"What? DON'T TOUCH ME WITH THAT!"

"What procedure did the perp use?"

Tré looked at the victim's abdomen, violet-blue eyes narrowed. "Maylard incision. First the skin, then the superficial fascia, then the muscle, and finally the pelvic peritoneum."

Law gave an approving nod. "Like Sterling."

Ace frowned. "Like Sterling."

"But," Law took the folder back. "There are some differences."

Zoro frowned severely, "Like what?"

"On Diana, there are a few jags in the incision, indicating hesitation or uncertainty. You don't see that here. Notice how cleanly the this skin had been cut? There aren't any jags at all."

"He was confident."

Tré nodded, " Like I said, he's improved."

Zoro watched as Law prepared the Y-incision. They were all daring down at the corpse as the skin was peeled back, revealing the damage within. "So once he removes the uterus, what does he do with it?"

"We don't know," Tré said. "The organs have never been found."

Law glanced at the clock. "You can keep the folders for review, and Dr. Ashford will take over soon, so talk to him if you like, but I have to go. There some stuff I need to do."

Ace rose an eyebrow. "Like what kind of stuff? You're the lead ME."

Tré grinned and took her gloves off after covering the corpse. "Yeah, boss. What kind of stuff?"

Law took his lab coat off and grabbed his keys from the girl, "You know; wibbly wobbly, timey wimey kind of stuff."


	3. Chapter 3

Law walked out of the ME's office, swirling his car keys around his finger. Tré was walking behind him, iPod in her ear. Oblivious. She was reviewing the autopsy report on Diana Sterling. She'd made copies for the two detectives, and kept the originals to herself to look over. The girl was a stickler for perfection (due to her OCD or perhaps another reason), and she always sought Law's approval when working.

As a medical student, she had been ridiculed and abused by other interns because she was smart (and apparently, no one likes people who are smarter than them). Her IQ was over 130, and she had an uncanny memory for 'useless' facts, which others made fun of her for. Law found it amusing and had picked her to be his assistant out of twenty-five other hopefuls who were also top of the class.

His reason? A few, but mainly because one day the girl had snapped and punched out another female intern after the woman had keyed her Vespa with the words "deaf loser". Tré is completely deaf in her left ear, due to a childhood accident involving her brothers and a paintball gun. The girl was fluent in sign-language, and is otherwise unimpaired.

"Tré," Law walked up to his car, an ice-blue 1974 Corvette Stingray. The white-leather interior was glossy from a weekend of hardcore cleaning, and the engine roars when he keyed the ignition.

"Hm?" Tré has just stopped at her own vehicle, a navy Vespa. The girl pulled her helmet on an clasped it. "Yes, sir?"

"Are you joining me or not?" He smirked, knowing the girl was as much a Doctor Who fan as he was. Tré nodded up a storm and revved her Vespa.

"I have to stop by the house and check on Märchésa, but I'll meet you."

Law nodded and drove off, tires screeching as he broke the speed limit.

Tré smiled, "Show off."

...

Ace stared at the autopsy photos from the Sterling case and he sighed deeply, taking a sip of the now lukewarm coffee that Ayane had made. Zoro's fiancée was bustling about the kitchen, humming to herself.

Zoro sat at the kitchen table, various files from previous cases with similarities to the way the corpses were found. "We need to see the apartment."

Ace blinked. "Now?" Nodding, Zoro stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Ayane, we're going," he gave the brunette a kiss and waves the file. "New case to work on, and it's tied to Diana Sterling."

Ayane, with her sober gray-green eyes, frowned. She turned the stove off and looked to her love, "Please be safe this time. That Corvus case a few months back nearly killed you."

Zoro smirked and though of the scar running across his chest, and the one over his eye. The confrontation with the Irish mafia had almost wiped him out, but the convict had gotten clumsy at the end, and single shot to the head had wrapped up the whole ordeal.

But not before the man had tries to cleave Zoro in half.

"You know me," he joked with a dark smirk, and Ayane sighed.

"Which is why I'm warning you, Roronoa." Her eyes narrowed and she looked to Ace. "Make sure he doesn't get sloppy, please."

Ace laughed, "I'll try."

...

Ace stood on the sidewalk in the South End neighborhood where Elena had died. This area had once been a street of rundown rooming hostels for travelers who had bottom wage methods of payment. A shabby back-water neighborhood divided by railroad tracks to the more desirable upper side of Tokyo. But a growing city is a ravenous creature, always in search of new land, and railroads are no barrier to the hungry gaze of developers. A new generation of Japanese had discovered the South End, and the old rooming houses were gradually being converted into apartment buildings.

Elena Ortiz lived in such a building. Though the view from her second-story apartment was uninspiring. Her windows faced a dark alley that contained run-down laundromat and a condemned sushi bar.

Ace walked that alley now, scanning the windows in the apartments above, but nothing reflected back in their glassy eyes. The tenants had already been interviewed but none had given them any useful information.

He stopped in front of Elena's door, and stared at the size 8 1/2 footprint that had been left in the loamy soil that lined the sidewalk. It was directly under the fire escape, and climbed in through her open edition window. There were no functions AC's in this building, so if one wanted fresh air, they opened their windows.

He opened the door and stepped inside, Zoro right behind him. The two men walked into the linoleum kitchen and looked around. Nothing in the home had been touched; the beige rug was still under the sink, and the white couch was dotted with gray and black fur from the woman's cat. There was a computer desk in the corner of the living room, and a TV against the wall. The home was Western-styled to accommodate the foreigners who stayed here.

The air seemed fouler, thicker, as Zoro walked up the stairs to the bedroom, and the hairs on his arms stood up as an unseen chill swept through the room.

~BZZ! BZZ! BZZ!~

Zoro reached into his pocket and pulled the vibrating cell phone out. It was An unknown number. He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

"Detective Roronoa."

"Zoro-ya." It was Law, the lead Medical Examiner. What the hell did he want?

"What is it?"

"My assistant was looking over the file from the Sterling case, and she noticed that both Diana's body and the Ortiz woman's were found with traces of blue fibers in the wound margins of the throat slashes." His voice was in a louder than before, and Zoro could dimly hear the thump of music in the background.

"We're the fibers identified?"

Law's tone seemed bored, "Denim. Boot cut-Tré! Get away from my car!" There was a whooshing sound and a thunk, followed by a girlish squeal before Law came back. "Size 36."

"Big man."

"If it is a man. I've never seen a man in skinny jeans."

Zoro laughed. "Clearly you've never been to America."

"More tests are being run to locate a manufacturer, and I'll call if anything else-" the was another noise and a girlish shriek. "I'll call of anything else shows up."

Zoro nodded grimly. "Thanks." He hung up and followed Ace to the bedroom, wondering just who the hell they were dealing with.

...

Law watched as Tré filled her Vespa with gas, and he leaned against his car as his own tank was filled. He picked up the folder from the passenger seat and flipped it open. Scanning the contents of the details within, he imagined the ordeal that Miss Ortiz had gone through. In his line of work, he was supposed to think like a killer, be the killer.

/You step into the doorway of her bedroom. The curtains are thin, only an unlined cotton print, and light from the street lamps shines through the fabric, onto the bed. The sleeping woman. Surely you linger a moment or two, studying her. Considering with the pleasure the task that lies ahead. Because it is pleasurable or you, isn't it? The thrill moves through your blood stream like a drug. Awakening every nerve until you're pulsing with excitement./

Elena Ortiz didn't have time to scream. Or, if she did, no one heard her. Not the family next door, or the couple below.

The intruder brought tools with him. A rag soaked in chloroform, duct tape. A bag of surgical tools. He'd come fully prepared.

The ordeal would last over an hour, and Elena Ortiz was conscious for part of the time. The skin on her wrists and ankles was chafed, and in her agony, she'd emptied her bladder, urine mixing with blood and soaking the mattress. The operation was a delicate one, and the assailant took his time.

He did not rape her. Perhaps he was incapable of doing so.

When he'd finally finished his extraction, she was still alive. The pelvic wound continued to bleed, her heart to pump. Law guess maybe half an hour had passed, an eternity to Miss Ortiz.

/What were you doing during that time? Putting your tools away, packing your prize in ajar? Or did you merely stand there as enjoy the view?/

The final act was swift and business like. Elena's tormentor had taken was he wanted, and then it was time to finish things. He had moved to the head of the bed, grasped a handful of hair, yanking back so hard he tore out nearly two dozen strands. With her neck fully immobilized, he made a single deep slash starting at the left side of the jaw and working across to the right. He had severed the trachea and jugular vein, blood spraying in a crimson arc across the wall and bed.

/Did you stay long enough to watch her bleed out, or did you run home to revel in your victory?/

"Boss?"

Law was startled out if his thoughts and he looked at Tré. "What?"

"Tank is full, sir."

Law swiped his card trough the slot and got into his car. "You don't have to be formal outside of work."

"Then stop calling me 'Miss' Tré."

Law smirked. "Fine." He revved the engine a little. "Shall we see who gets there first?"

Tré's smirk was a little evil. "My place or yours?"

"Your TV is bigger."

"Bigger isn't better, mine's not HD."

"Said the pencil to the baseball bat."


	4. Chapter 4

The long way to Tré's penthouse apartment in the city took them 45 minutes to drive. The perfect amount of time to race. The wooded area was quiet, and Law's tires screeched as he went over 100, his car an ice-blue blur as Tré's souped up Vespa was almost beside him, just a foot or so behind. Aside from being a forensic investigator and morgue assistant, the woman had a penchant for mechanics and her grandfather was the CEO of the Mitsubishi car brand, which naturally meant the girl knew her away around cars and vehicles.

With an evil smirk, Law slammed on the gas and shot the speed level to over 120, giving himself a good distance from Tré. He was thinking of going faster, but his cell phone suddenly rang and he glared at the caller ID as he pulled it out of his pocket.

~Tokyo Police Department~

"Oh, what fresh hell is this?"

...

Ace was pacing the carpet if his office as he stared at the book on his desk. His boss, Lieutenant Rob Lucci had brought the object in a few minutes ago, and as he read the notes inside, he had even more questions that were unanswered!

Cellphone in hand, he hit speed dial to the ME.

"Trafalgar Law." He answered on the first ring, his response as direct as a bullet.

Ace closed his office door, "You never told me you got a hit on VICAP."

"What hit?"

"On Diana Sterling. I'm looking T her murder book right now."

VICAP, the Violent Criminals Apprehension Program, was a national database of homicide and assault information gathered from cases across the country. Killers often repeated the same patterns, and with this data, investigators could link crimes committed by the same perpetrator.

As a matter of routine, Law had initiated a search on VICAP.

"We didn't get any matches in the Hokkaido," he said. "We ran down every homicide involving mutilation, night entry, and duct tape bindings. Nothing fit Sterling's profile."

"What about the ones in Nagano? Three years ago, there were four victims. One in Yashima, three in a hotel next to Matsumoto Castle. All were in VICAP."

Law slowed down and unlit matey came to a stop. "I reviewed those cases, he wasn't our unsub."

"Listen to this, Law. Dora Ciccone, age twenty-two, graduate from Emory. Victim first subdued with Rohypnol, then restrained on the bed with nylon cord-"

"Our guy is issuing chloroform and duct tape, Portgaz-ya."

Ace frowned. "He sliced open her abdomen, cut out her uterus and then sliced her neck open. I'm telling you, it's too much of a fucking coincidence."

Law ran a hand through his dark hair in annoyance. "The Nagano cases are closed. They've been closed for almost two and a half years. That perp is dead."

Ace's voice grew heated. "What if Nagano PD blew it? What if he wasn't their killer?"

"Portgaz-ya, they had DNA to back it up. Hair, fibers. Plus there was a witness. A victim who survived."

"Oh yeah. The survivor. Victim number five." Ace's voice held a strangely taunting tone.

"She confirmed the perp's identity."

"She also conveniently shot him to death."

Law eyed the tattoos across his fingers, the ink spelling out one letter of the word 'death' on each digit. "So what, you want to arrest his corpse?"

"Did you ever talk to the surviving victim?"

"No." Law was slightly amused by Ace's anger.

"Why the hell not?"

"What would be the point?"

Ace wanted to throw something. "The point is that you might've learned something interesting. Like the fact that she left Nagano after the attack." He paused for a second. "And guess where she lives now?"

Through the hiss of the cellphone, Law was suddenly aware of the beat of his own pulse. "Tokyo?"

Ace laughed. "And you're not gonna believe what she does for a living."

...

Dr. Catherine Cordell sprinted down the hospital corridor, the soles of her Nikes squeaking on the linoleum.

A nurse called out: "They're in Trauma Two!"

"I'm there!" Catherine yelled, moving like a guides missile and burst through the double doors into the emergency room.

Half a dozen faces looked up in relief as she entered the room. In one glance she took in the situation. Saw jumbled instruments glittering on a tray, the IV poles hung with Ringer's lactate. Blood streaked gauze littered the floor, and the rapid beep of a heart monitor rang in her ears.

"What's going on?"

"John Doe, hit and run. Can in unconscious and unresponsive to stimuli."

The man on the table was stripped naked, every detail of his anatomy mercilessly exposed to everyone's gaze. He appeared to be in his sixties, already intubated and on a ventilator.

"Systolic is barely at sixty!" A nurse yelled. "His hematocrit is at fifteen."

/He's bleeding out from the inside./ Catherine thought. "We need O-neg and fresh plasma, STAT!"

"On the way, Doc!"

Catherine palmed one of the scalpels on the laparotomy tray and made a quick slice below the man's belly button.

Blood gushed out in a river and she grabbed the clamps, "We've gotta do this now!" She cut some more, through the layer of fat all the way through muscle until she was looking into a cavity of blood. She put the clamps in place and peeled back the skin, two nurses shoving laparotomy pads inside to soak up the red stuff.

"It's still pooling, and we've got almost two liters in the reservoir! Shit, it's not working." Dr. Cordell turned to a surgical intern. "Get me a Foley catheter and some suction."

When the catheter came to her she stripped it and slid the tip into the man's distended stomach, blood instantly pouring out into the empty bucket below. The intern used the hose to suck up more, and soon they had a clear look at what was wrong.

"Whoa." The hemorrhage was causedby a thick gash in the lining of the stomach. No doubt created by the car that hit him.

Catherine grabbed one of the surgical kits and quickly isolated the wound, absorbing more blood from the gauze, and then went to work, seeing up the cut as fast as she could. The blood that had been spurting through her fingers just moments before was slowing, and within seconds, it stopped altogether.

"Rhythm's coming back!" A nurse cried as the shrill beep of the heart monitor came back. It was pumping again, circulating through the bloodstream instead of the stomach.

"Are we perfusing?" Cordell asked. "What's the BP?"

The nurse stared at the monitor. "BP is...ninety over forty. Yes!"

Catherine stared into the open abdomen. The blood had slowed to a barely perceptible ooze, and she smiled.

"Folks, I think we have a save here."

...

Tré spun her Cespa around and slid up to her boss's car. "What's up?"

Law sighed in aggravation. "I have to go back, something just came up."

Tré looked a little bit crestfallen but she smiled. "Okay. Guess I'll go see Ayane then. I need to go grocery shopping anyway."

"Why bother?" Law smirked. "It's not like you eat anyway."

"I eat."

"You eat under a thousand calories a day."

"I don't like food."

"Clearly." He revved his engine and backed up. "Be at the office tomorrow, 7AM sharp."

Tré saluted the older doctor. "Yes, master." Law rolled his eyes and drove away, tires squeaking, kicking up clouds of dust.

Tré shook her head. "Show off."

...

Ayane had just stepped out of her car at Fresh Market when the familiar "Ayane-taaaaaaaan!" met her ears. The 26-year-old turned to watch as her 22-year-old cousin flew at her.

"Hi, Tré-chan."

"So hey. Has Zoro told you anything about the new case?"

Ayane rolled her eyes and grabbed a cart, walking into the blessed AC of the store. Tré kept blabbering about murders and corpses, which made Ayane cringe.

"Tré, hush." The woman scolded as she picked up a package of bell peppers. She sniffed them and put them in her cart.

Tré stared at the fruit with a blazing look on her face. Tré was the kind of girl who could eat her weight in food and not gain an ounce, but she didn't eat too often, just a snack here or there.

But damn those pomegranates looked yummy.

"Tré?" Ayane stepped beside the girl and repeated her name. With a sigh, Ayane poked her cousin, who turned.

"What?"

Ayane moved her hands to sign: What's wrong? Is the case distracting you?

Tré shook her head. "Not really. I'm just worn out. I've pretty much memorized the case files, ad I keep thinking of that guy from the 80's, who was always on te news, who hacked out people's lady parts. You remember, what was his name...Kazu...Kazu something."

Ayane shrugged and grabbed a pomegranate and some cucumbers. "You'll remember after you eat."

"I'm not hungry, woman!"

...

I watch as the two women scan the aisles for food, it's a coincidence that we are in the same area, but I am happy, because now I know.

They know too much.

Without rousing any suspicion, I follow them outside to their vehicles. The smaller girl is following the other, and pretty soon I am able to locate their destination.

...

It was a little bit past six o'clock in the morning when Law's phone rang again. Cursing, he sat up and answers with a rough "What."

"I'm sorry to call so early, Doc, but I was wondering if you had heard from Tré or Ayane since last evening?"

Law rubbed his eyes and stirs a yawn. "No. They went out together, that's all I know."

Zoro's voice was hard. "They haven't come home."


	5. Chapter 5

Ace and Zoro walked through the hallways of Shinjuku General Hospital, the former eyeing a case file, the former with a dark scowl on his face. It had been almost a full sixteen hours since Ayane had been missing. Not that he didn't care about Tré, but Ayane was his fiancée. His love. And that shit took precedence over everything else.

"So Cordell is the survivor, which means she knows who the killer is. She might know his name, and she could describe him."

"The killer is dead." Zoro growled. "This is someone new."

"A copycat. Maybe he had an apprentice or something, maybe someone who watched, who helped him." Ace walked faster to match Zoro's strides.

"Have you told anyone she's gone?"

"Everyone knows. I put a call in after her and Tré's phones went unanswered, and their vehicles were found at Tré's house." He kept walking, following the signs that indicated the location of the surgical ward.

When the duo arrived in a hallway full of offices, Ace began looking for the woman's name on each door. The hallway was a S shape, and it took a minute to locate the right office. Ace looked inside.

There was a woman sitting at the desk, typing on her computer, the glare of the screen reflected on her glasses. She had a fifties-era bob of flaming red hair, and when she looked up at them, Ace could tell her eyes were bright green. Like the inside of a lime.

Ace cracked the door open, "Dr. Cordell?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"I'm Detective Portgaz D. Ace. This is Detective Roronoa Zoro. We're from the Homicide unit." He held up his badge but the doctor scarcely looked at it, her sole focus was on Ace.

"May we talk to you in private?" He asked.

"Is this about that John Doe from the hit and run? Because we saved him, he's in the ICU."

Ace shook his head. "We're not here about a patient."

"But you're from Homicide?"

"Yes." It was the quiet, almost gentle tone to his voice that alarmed her. A warning to prepare herself for bad news.

The color drained from her face. "Oh god, I hope this isn't about someone I know."

Zoro stepped closer. "Actually, it's about what happened to you in Nagano."

For a moment Catherine could not speak. Her legs suddenly went numb and she reached for the wall as though to catch herself from falling. Her face visibly paled, and Ace was suddenly unsure of whether this interrogation was worth the stress they were causing.

Sitting behind her desk,she watched Ace and Zoro take in the room. Was it an automatic reflex, to check the environment, a quick visual survey? It made Catherine feel exposed. Vulnerable.

"I realize this is a painful subject to talk about," Ace said as he took a seat. Zoro remained standing, face as unreadable as stone.

"You have no idea. It's been almost three years, why is this coming up now?"

"In relation to two insincere murders here in Tokyo."

Catherine frowned. "But I was attacked in Nagano, during a medical conference. I'm from Boston, Massachusetts in America. I was offered a higher paying job here in Japan, and I have no family in Boston I just decide to move here."

"There's a crime database called VICAP. When we did a search of similar cases, Kazuno Tsuuda's name popped up."

Cordell was silent for a moment, absorbing the information. Building the courage to ask the next logical question, which she spoke quite calmly.

"What similarities are we talking about?"

Zoro's tone was icy. "The manner in which the women were immobilized and controlled. The type of cutting instruments." He looked the doctor in the eye. "The method of mutilation."

Catherine gripped her desk so hard her knuckles turned white, and Ace frowned at his partner.

Zoro continued. "After you were attacked, and moved here to Tokyo, what did you do for the seven months that you didn't work?"

"Nothing." That answer, so flat and final, was all she was going to say. She was not going to reveal the humiliation she'd suffered that first week of the conference. The effects of what it caused afterward. The nights where even the slightest noise had her heart pounding in fear, shaking in panic. She'd been ashamed of her vulnerability; was still ashamed, but her pride would never allow her to reveal it.

She looked at her watch. "I'm on call, and have patients coming in. I have nothing more to add."

"Let me re-check my facts here," Zoro opened a spiral notebook. "A little under three years ago, you were attacked in your home by Dr. Kazuno Tsuuda. A man you knew, the man you interned for." He looked at Catherine.

"You already know the answers."

"He drugged you, stripped you. Tied you down and terrorize you."

"I don't see the point of-"

Zoro's tone was stone-cold nasty. "Raped you." The words were as brutal as a slap to the face and Catherine was stunned into silence.

"And that's all he planned to do." He went on.

Ace frowned. "Zoro, that's enough."

The green haired man ignored him. "He was to mutilate you in the worst way possible, just like the other five women in Nagano. He cut them open, Dr. Cordell. Destroyed precisely what made them women."

Catherine'a voice was soft. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because he has my wife!" Zoro yelled. "There is nothing I want more than to hunt this bastard down and ensure he can't hurt anyone else."

"He can't." Ace said. "He's dead, remember?"

"Then why are the cases following the same MO?"

"I can guarantee he's dead," Catherine shot back.

Zoro snorted. "Can you now."

Catherine's chin lifted in defiance, "Yes. Because I'm the one who blew that son of a bitch away."

...

Ayane opened her eyes and blinked, groaning as pain lanced trough her skull. It was dark, and the air smelled of mildew and soil. She gagged in the humidity, and as her eyes adjusted, she realized she was in an earthen basement of some sort. She tried to remember what had happened after she got to Tré's apartment but-

Tré.

Ayane looked around wildly for her cousin and suddenly realized she was bound at the wrists and ankles with tape. She groaned as she tried to free herself, but she was stuck on a dirty old mattress and only succeeded in falling to the hard dirt floor.

"Tré?" She looked over towards the mattress and saw the girl, fast asleep. The drugs hasn't worn off yet. "Tré, honey, wake up. We've got to get out of here!" Ayane whisper-yelled, but the other girl was unresponsive. Ayane sighed and sat back against the damp wall.

/Tré didn't hear the attacker. And I putting groceries away in the house. She had her headphone in her ear./ Ayane cursed. /God, I bet Roronoa's freaking out right now./

Tré let out a sigh and twitched.

...

Law stood in the doorway of his office, looking at the side that Tré used. While his side was stacked with boxes of medical supplies and files, and hers was neat as a pin. He walked over to her desk and stated at her laptop. There was a notebook beside it, with copies of the Nagano files and the autopsies of Elena Ortiz and Diana Sterling.

He looked at the notebook, where Tré's tiny handwriting was scrawled all over the pages in various ink colors.

-Mutilation: Uterine removal, binding, 'date rape' drugs. There were snippets of case similarities, and random things about the Nagano cases.

Law picked up the notebook. "1994, Kazuno Tsuuda. Same MO. Killed by would-be victim in 2010." He frowned, wondering why Tré would have mentioned this case when the culprit had been killed already.

Until he saw what was scribbled in the margins. "HE HAS AN APPRENTICE." Law sat down and opened her laptop, listening to the hum as it turned on and opened the login page.

"Help me out, Tré. What's your password..." He looked around her desk for some clue that could help him. He tired the usuals, "ABCD, 1234, password", etc. but Tré was smart, she'd have a password no one could think of.

/You figured it out. That's why this happened. You're smarter than the rest of us./ he stared at the laptop. /He took you out first, because you didn't hear him. You were probably listening to music and he caught you off guard, but Ayane could have screamed and run away, but she wouldn't leave you, so he nabbed her too./

"Trafalgar."

Law looked over to the doorway where the boss of both the medical and police department stood. Rob Lucci was a heartless bastard who did very little to aid his employees with their work, and he was strongly disliked; but because he signed everyone's paychecks, no one talked bad about him. He was cruel, and often talked down to people under his rank.

"The girl is probably dead, so don't waste anytime trying to figure anything out." He said. "We don't have time for this, and I'm not paying you and Zoro to make side jobs of finding your little friends. Accept what's happened and move on." He began walking away but Law kept trying to hack into the laptop.

"Make me." He murmured.

Lucci smirked. "What happened. To you? You used to seeing be all 'I'm Trafalgar Law, watch me be all broody and careless. Run away, I'm terrifying'."

Law glared at him. "Tré and I made a deal that is she stopped talking to herself, I would be less of an unresponsive asshole."

Lucci looked annoyed. "Do the job I pay you to do and stay out of things that don't concern you. You're the ME. Not a Detective."

Law watched his boss walk away and he went back to the computer. "It does concern me. She's my assistant."

/And I'll do whatever the fuck I want about this./ he typed up random things now, things he learned about Tré from watching her.

-DAVIDBOWIE- Access denied.

-IHATEMYBOSS- Access denied.

Law smirked. -ILOVEMYBOSS- Access denied.

He swore. Nothing was working. He tried everything he knew, including the name of her pet shark, Märchésa, but was still denied access.

He thought of the times where they'd quiz each other on medical things when performing autopsies. What method of cutting was used, time of death, etc. by which point she start blabbing random shit that no one else understood.

/The girl is genius enough to be a rocket scientist so why-/ he stopped and looked at her computer with a new gleam in his eye. He swiftly moved his fingers over the keys.

-IAMSMARTERTHANYOU-

Ding!

The background appeared, a picture of all the the ME department in all their Doctor Who obsessed glory, and Law felt a twinge of something he couldn't identify as he stared at himself and Tré sitting on the counter, he flipping the camera off, her holding up a ceramic TARDIS and grinning.

"Okay, Tré." He opened up her recent documents and clicked on the Kazuno Tsuuda file. "Where are you?"


	6. Chapter 6

(I just wanna give the amazing " .144" a shout-out for being awesome and helping me out after Luffy ate all my plot bunnies. Much love!)

...

"Are you certain that Dr. Cordell is willing to do this?" Asked Hirotoshi Inoue.

Ace nodded. "She's here and waiting for you."

"You didn't force her into this, she decided on her own? She has to be fully cooperative or it'll be a waste of time."

/Waste of time.../ Ace sighed.

Zoro had been MIA for the past 16 hours since talking to the doctor, he and Law secretly looking into the disappearance of Ayane and Tré. A few other, lower-ranking detectives were in on it too, but no one spoke a word around Lieutenant Lucci. The man firmly believed that of it was a lost cause, you moved on. Even if there was a slight ray of hope, the man crushed it like a bug.

But Zoro wasn't giving up; not when the life of his fiancée and we only living family member was on the line. And Law seemed to be severely involved as well, but Ace assumed it was because Tré had been his assistant and that by her missing, it was a threat to Law as well.

"She understands that other people are in danger right now and she wants to do all she can to help." Ace explained, and Inoue gave a consenting nod.

There had been a time when Ace did it believe in hypnotism; he'd always thought if the occult stuff as silly.

The Reiko Yamanaka case had changed his mind.

On October 31, 2008, ten-year-old Reiko was walking to friend's house for a Halloween party just down the street when a car pulled up beside her. She was need seen alive again.

The only witness to the abduction was a twelve-year-old boy playing nearby. Although the car had been in plain sight, the boy couldn't remember the license plate number (although he managed to give the shape, color and brand of the vehicle). Weeks later, with no new developments, the girl's parents insisted the boy be brought in, and hired a hypnotist to interview him. With every other avenue of investigation exhausted, the police agreed to let Dr. Inoue coax the child into a hypnotic state.

Ace had been present at the session, and watched in amazement as, after about fifteen minutes, the boy quietly recited the license number.

Reiko Yamanaka's body was found two days later, buried in the abductor's backyard.

"Bring her in." Hirotoshi said.

Ace walked out of the room and returned a few moments later, Catherine walking behind him. She took a seat in a soft, comfortable armchair, and Dr. Inoue sat in front of her on a stool.

"Good morning, Miss Cordell." She gave a similar greeting and glanced at Ace, who nodded.

"Do you have any concerns?" The doctor asked, and Catherine hesitated.

"I'm afraid."

"Of what, dear?"

Catherine's voice was soft. "Reliving it." She gave Ace a small smile. "But I'll do anything I can to help those two girls."

Inoue smiled. "Then lets begin."

...

Tré watched in horror as Ayane thrashed, crying out as their attacker subdued her, tying her wrists together, binding her ankles. He laughed, a malignant sound that made her skin crawl, and she suddenly gasped as a vibration shuddered against her chest.

Her cellphone!

She always kept it in her sports bra because she rarely heard the ringtone, and would feel the vibration against her skin.

/Please don't hear it, please don't hear it./ she prayed. She opened her eyes and watched as their attacker (who was wearing a surgical cap and face mask) leaned over Ayane with a scalpel.

The first shriek made Tré's blood run cold, and years fell from her eyes as her cousin screamed in pain.

/Find us. Hurry. Please!/

...

Hirotoshi talked in a very calm, genteel manner, his voice soft and in-commanding. "Now Catherine, imagine that you're at your childhood home. You had a lake house, didn't you?"

Catherine nodded.

"Imagine standing there, at the waters edge. And you see a small boat at the end of the dock. The water is calm, smooth, like a mirror, and it just floats there. It's a magic boat, and can take us anywhere we want. Now, step into the boat."

Ace watched in amazement at Catherine's right foot actually lifted off the ground a few inches and then lowered it, before doing the same thing with her left.

The doctor went on, "You're in the boat, and its floating off towards the field of wildflowers on the other side, where your family used to have picnics as play movies from the projector."

Hirotoshi leaned closer to Catherine, but not touching her; using only the sound of his voice to guide her through the trance. "You pull TK shore and step out onto the sand, walking up the path to the soft, thick blanket. There's a screen tied between two trees, and a film projector is set up for you. You can watch any scene from your life on this screen."

Catherine sighed deeply.

"Pick up the remote. It can go as car back as you want, and you can stop at any time. You are in control." He cleared his throat. "Feel how soft the blanket is, how sweet the flowers smell, and how warm the sun is on your back?"

"Yes." Came the soft reply.

"Now, Catherine. Take us back to the night in Nagano. The medical conference. You were with friends from Boston, yes?"

Catherine smiled. "Yes, Dr. Falco, a friend from Mass Gen, and Dr. Dorian from Sacred Heart."

"You all had a nice time, right? Visits the doctors you would work for?"

"Yes..."

"Who was your lead?"

"Dr. Kazuno Tsuuda."

"Was he nice?"

Catherine paused. "He was. But his smile...the wine..."

"What happened, Catherine?"

Ace listened intently as Catherine spoke. He knew these clues could possibly shed some light on the cases, and with a civilian, an one of Tokyo PD's own missing, they needed every scrap of information they could get.

"We had dinner...the wine was good. We drank a few glasses, and he was polite. But his smile...was strange...like he was an animal watching it's prey."

/Because that's what you are to them. Prey. Helpless and weak./ Ace though with a frown.

"What happens next?" Hirotoshi prompted.

"I'm falling asleep."

/The Rohypnol./ Ace thought. /He drugged you at dinner./ A spark of rage went through the man.

"And then?"

Catherine frowned. "The screen is black."

"Let's fast-forward past the black part. Now what do you see?"

Catherine gave a small sigh of distress. "I'm...I'm tied to my bed."

"Is Tsuuda there?"

"Yes. He's...in top of me. Inside me."

Ace clenched his fists.

"There's a light, I can see it." Catherine said suddenly.

"What's in the room? Can you see?" The doctor asked, a little eagerly.

"A table. With tools on it. I...I can see...a scalpel." She gasped. "I'm pulling on the ropes, my wrists are bleeding, but I have to get free. Th blood makes the rope slippery, and I pull my hand out."

"Can you hear anything?"

She stopped. "Yes...I hear laughter. I grab the scalpel and cut myself free. I try to run, but I'm so...heavy...I fall."

"What next, dear?"

"I grab...my fathers gun...from under the bed..."

"Where Tsuuda?"

Catherine held her hands up, as though holding a firearm. "He's back, walking towards me."

"What do you do?"

"I shoot him." She frowns. "In the stomach. He goes down, and then it's black again..."

/The Rohypnol was still in her system. She hasn't fully shaken the effects off yet.../ Ace said to himself.

"You heard laughter, right, Catherine?" Dr. Inoue asked her.

"He was...talking...'do one, learn one, teach one.'"

"Then what?"

"'It's my turn, Tsuuda."

"Did Kazuno say that?"

Catherine frowned. "No...I don't know who. I don't...recognize the...voice."

Ace paled. His hunch and Tre's notes were right...there was someone else there.

Kazuno Tsuuda had an apprentice.

...

Zoro and Law were going over the notes that Law had found when the phone rang. Law was gojng through evey single document on Tré's laptop, and Zoro flipped through thw notebooks she'd written in.

They'd been at it for almost 24 hours now.

The phone rang again, but neither of them wanted to answer, but after the third time, Zoro snatched up the phone and snarled into it.

"What?"

Ace's voice was panicked. "You need to get down here. We've got another body."

Zoro rubbed his eyes. "I'm busy. You deal with it."

"Roronoa, you have to come." Ace's voice grew concerned. "It's Ayane."

...

Zoro's car raced down the street like a bat out of hell, sirens wailing and tires screeching. Behind him,aw's engine roared like thunder as the two parted cars on the street like Moses and the Red Sea. People shifted quickly, not just because it was TPD, but because of the magnitude at which they were driving.

As Zoro shot around the corner of the SEED Redcords recording building, Law was right there with him, slamming on the gas, going well over the 35MPH speed limit.

They shot over 210 now.

It took almost twenty minutes before they arrived at the crime scene, just outside of the city limits, near an abandoned gas station. Rain had started to fall, and the milling policemen were holding up unbrella's while the EMS crew carted Ayane inside.

She was alive, but barely.

Zoro skidded to a stop, spraying the cops with gravel and dirt before jumping out of his car, not even turning it off. Law was the same, running over to the commotion the moment he got close enough.

Zoro all but shoved the others away as he hopped into the back of the ambulance. "Ayane?!" His tone was hoarse, worried.

Ayane was covered in blood, grime, and bruises. Her clothes torn and tattered liked she'd been missing for months instead of a few hours. Her lips were chapped and bloody, her eyes shut.

Zoro touched the side of her face, "Ayane, it's me." He spoke gently, and Law turned to one of the younger cops.

"What happened?"

The man shook his head. "Patrol was going by and saw her on the ground." They kept talking, going over every single detail the kid could give up, and Law only looked up when Zoro yelled out his name.

"Trafalagar, get in here, now!"

Law was there in an instant, climbing into the vehicle. "What?"

Zoro lifted up Ayane's shirt, baring her stomach, which was also covered in blood. But this blood wasn't clotting like the rest. This was fresh, and Law felt horror flood his system as the cuts came into view in thin, cursive letters.

"He fucking cut the message into her skin!" Zoro roared, and the rage was almost tangible.

-YOU HAVE 24 HOURS TO FIND ME OR THE OTHER GIRL DIES.-

Law and Zoro looked at each other. This shit was getting too close to home. They weren't save anymore.

No one was safe.

"Tré..." Ayane's voice was barely a whisper, and Zoro leaned down to hear her.

"What about her, baby?"

Ayane opened her eyes and looked at Law. "Doesn't want...you looking for her." As Law's eyes flared, she cleared her throat. "She doesn't...want you in danger..."

Law's eyebrows crashed down, "Why the fuck not?"

Ayane have him a significant look. "Use your brain." She coughed raggedly. "What emotional force...would cause another to...put themselves in danger for the sake...of another...?"

"Where. Is. She." He bit out. "Where's Tré?"

Ayane shook her head, "I promised."

Zoro stroked her hair, "Ayane, listen, you know he'll kill her if we don't find her. I know you're serious about promises, but Law won't stop, I won't stop until we find her and bring her home."

"You don't...know where...he has her...I don't know..." Ayane closed her eyes in pain. "The basement...couldn't see."

Zoro watched as a nurse placed an oxygen mask over Ayane's face. The woman looked at Law again.

"I want her found, but she's more worried...about you. Tré cares about your safety."

"And I don't care about hers?" Law began walking back to his car. "I  
care more than either of you realize."


	7. Chapter 7

OCTOBER 5, 2013

...

In the three months since the murders began, the Tokyo Police department were still a long way away from finding Kazuno Tsuuda's "apprentice". All of the notes that Tré had written were organized and mapped out in Law's office, away from where the higher ups couldn't detect his and Zoro's side-job of looking for the girl. After Ayane had been saved, the department had celebrated, but one of their own was still missing, and the longer time passed, the more worried they became.

After the initial 24-hour mark after Ayane had been found, the killer, who had been nicknamed "The Cutter", had sent out clues to finding the other woman; each more gruesome than the last.

The most recent corpse had been bound with vines covered and strange purple plants that Ayane had later identified as the Passion flower; Tré's favorite. They weren't indigenous to Japan, and the only import/export unit in the country that had them was in Nagano, but the leads ended there.

Ace was shifting through the autopsy files of Kazuno, while Law read every single document containing the man's name. There were intern files from when he was a surgeon's assistant back in 1987, and notes the man had taken during the conferences in 1994, 2001, and 2008.

/That was the year he attacked Dr. Cordell./ Law thought, and he frowned as he flipped open a notebook containing the recommendations for Tsuuda to work for Tokyo General Hospital. /Wait./ Law frowned, staring at the photograph that been stapled to the file.

"Portgaz-ya."

Ace turned. "Hm? What did you find?"

"Who does think this looks like?" Law held up the picture. "Look at the two men on the bottom left. The doctor and intern."Ace's color drained faster than Law though possible, and as the other man opened his mouth to speak, a cheery "You've got mail!" came from the other side of the room.

Law slid over to the desk in the rolling chair and opened up his account. It was from someone called MorgueMaster and had the subject headline "Lab Report". He hesitated for second, not recognizing the username. He only had three contacts: SavvyDoc (Tré), MELead (the medical examiner main office), and FireFist (Ace). Normally he wouldn't download a file from an unknown sender, but the headline intrigued him.

Law opened it.

-Here are some pathology photos that I found that may be of interest to you.- Law downloaded the attached files, and abruptly called Ace over as a color photograph popped up.

"It's Tré!"

Ace all but sprinted to the computer.

The picture was of Tré, standing against the wall, shackled and chained like a dog. Her shirt was missing, her pants were torn in some places, and she had lost a shoe. Her hair was a tangled mess, and bruises dotted her skin, a strip of duct tape covered her mouth, but Ace could tell that if she could speak, she would have been screaming. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and the surroundings gave no hint to her location.

There was a cardboard sign taped to her chest like a plaque: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOSS! was written in giant, curlicue letters with black ink.

White-hot rage swept through Law and he turned away from the screen, swearing violently. Ace was on his phone, dialing for one of the IT guys, and moments later a tall blond man came in.

"Yeah?"

Ace sighed and pointed at the PC. "Sabo, you have to find out where this email came from. Track the IP address, and get as much information as you can."

Sabo nodded grimly, "You got it, bro."

...

Ace called Zoro and explained what was going on while Law went through every school document during the years that Kazuno attended. The man graduated in 1997 from Meiji University, causing Law to look up the school and make a few phone calls.

"Ace." Said man turned to look at Law.

"What?"

Law grabbed his keys and pulled his hoodie over his head, "I have a theory, and I'm about to go confirm it. I'll call when I find out more."

"Do you really think its-"

"I don't know! But if it is, then we have to do something fast before Tré gets killed."

Ace nodded, wishing the other man luck as he left. This case was hard on everyone, but Law was taking it personally.

...

A Law walked into the lobby of Meiji University, he was dimly aware of the stares he got: guys looking at him like he was a weirdo (mostly because he was soaked from the rain and had an expression like he was going to tear the Earth apart), and the girls because he was obviously the hottest thing they'd ever seen. From the piercings, to the tattoos, to the glare, Trafalgar Law was a walking, breathing mass of "get-the-fuck-away-from-me-or-I-will-consume-your- soul".

He walked into an office labeled "student services", and at once the secretary appeared.

"Are you from TPD?"

Law nodded and the woman ushered him into a room and took a seat. "When you asked for the student files for the class that Mr. Tsuuda taught, I had to do some digging, but I've got the class roster for you." Law took the folder and looked through the pictures of the class. Underneath the names was the graduating motto of the medical school: "To Heal The World".

Law looked up, "When we spoke on the phone you said that the graduating class had 108 students, but this roster says there were 110 in attendance."

The secretary stopped smiling and shook her head sadly, "I still haven't gotten over what happened to that poor girl."

"What girl?"

"Tomoe Izayoi. She was working as a pediatric nurse in the city, for her elective course. The roads to the hospital were just awful then. She ran into a ditch and broke her neck in a thunder storm."

"And the other student, there was another one who didn't graduate."

Her eyes fell to her desk. "It happens every so often. A student drops out. We try to help, but there are just some problems you can't fix."

Law felt his pulse quicken. "What happened?"

"He had been assigned a female cadaver for his anatomy final, and he and his lab partners were to preterm a pelvic dissection, to expose the uterus and bladder. The organs were not to be removed, just laid bare." She shuddered. "The moments he got his hands on the scalpel, he lost control."

"How?"

"He carved them out. First he severed the bladder and left it lying between the cadaver's legs, and the. He hacked out the uterus. He didn't wear any gloves, like he wanted to feel the blood and organs in hands. That's how I found him. In one hand he was holding the dripping organ, and in the other..." Her voice trailed away, as though disturbed by this topic.

Law's voice was neutral. "He was masturbating."

"That's why he couldn't graduate! If he did that to a corpse, imagine what he'd do to a live patient!"

"And this student," Law felt his suspicions rise. "What was his name?"

"Robert Lucci."

...

Law ran out to car as fast as he could, grabbing his cell phone, activating the three-way call app and dialing Ace and Zoro. They answers almost immediately.

"I'm glad you called! We found out where the message came from!" Ace's voice was stressed and rapid. "It was sent from Tré's laptop!"

Law swore. "Portgaz, Roronoa, listen; I know who it is! L-" he saw him then, rising out of his back seat like a cobra, and the last thing Law acknowledged was the burning pain in his throat as the chloroform-soaked rag covered his mouth.


	8. Chapter 8

Tré opened her eyes and blinked rapidly. Her head felt like it was going to split open, and her ribs were throbbing to a nearly excruciating level. Her legs were free, and she worked the stuff muscles by bending the kind and stretching as far as she could while her wrists were still strung up to the wall.

She hasn't eaten in almost a week, but her kidnapper had allowed her to shower that morning so she was feeling better in spite of the pain and hunger. Her skin was no longer grimy, and her hair had resumed its usual shine and thickness. The only issue she couldn't hide were the various scratches and bruises marring her skin.

"You have to be clean before the procedure." The man had told her. His voice had a familiar hoarseness to it, but she was so muddled by the drugs that she couldn't think straight whenever he came back to the basement.

Her clothes had been discarded, and she was now donning a men's XL button up shirt and (this creeped her out immensely) brand new underwear that he'd brought to her a few days ago. He'd even brushed her hair and put it into a (surprisingly) flawless ponytail.

/I wonder if the other victims were pampered like this before he killed them./ she wondered. Tears suddenly burned her eyes as the realization that she would be killed hit her. /I'm never gonna see Ayane again. Or Zoro...or Law or...anyone!/ She couldn't speak due to the bandana covering her mouth, but if she could she knew she would scream at the unfairness of it all. /Why did I have to do background research? Why?/

Suddenly, the darkness of the basement was lessened by the single lightbulb screwed into the ceiling. Footsteps thinned down the staircase, and Tré frowned as she heard struggling, like her kidnapper were having a hard time getting down the stairs. There was muffled cursing and suddenly a body slammed into the wall and hit the floor.

"Mmn!" Tré struggled against her bonds as light fell on Law's body. Her eyes widened as the door slammed, but the dim light remained on, and Tré watched as Law say up, glaring murderously at the door before turning and examining the room.

When his eyes landed on her, he just stared at her for a few seconds. After coming to his senses, he got on his knees and stood up, struggling for a second because his hands were handcuffed behind his back. Tré started panicking, tears falling fast and hard as footsteps thumped from above them, and Law walked over to her, checking to see of she was hurt.

"Are you hurt?" Tré nodded and motioned with her head to her side, and Law could see the dark bruising through the white shirt.

Her ribs were broken.

Tré tried to speak, but all that came out were muffled whines, and the girl tried to get the bandana off of her mouth, but it was tied around her neck, and she couldn't get it no matter how much she struggled. Law leaned into the girl and caught the material between his teeth, tugging the knot until it loosened enough for him to pull it off. The moment the offending object was gone, Tré spoke faster than Law could understand and he had to stop her a few times.

"Are you insane?! I told Ayane to tell you all not to look for me!" Her voice was ragged, and she coughed a few times. "How the hell did you even get here?!"

Law shushed her as the footsteps came back, and Lucci was walking down to them, a medical kit and CINTAS first aid pack under his arms.

In his other hand was a gun.

He aimed it at Law, who glared at him. "Get over there." Law didn't move as Lucci sighed in exasperation enforce aiming it at Tré.

"I'm not going to ask you again." He took the safety off an this time Law obeyed, walking over to another wall and leaning against it.

Lucci walked over to Tré, who growled viciously at him.

"Don't fucking touch me!" She yelled as he held one of her legs down and cuffed it to the iron pegs that been drilled into the concrete wall. He repeated the action with her other leg and then gagged her again with the bandana.

"No, no, I'm not touching you yet." He turned to Law and smirked. "I've always wondered what it would be like to gut a male patient."

He palmed one of the scalpels and walked towards the other man, but Law moved first, hands freed from the leather cord that had been around it and he lunged for the surgical tray, but Lucci fired a shot off and Tré cried out as the bulletin pierced her shoulder.

"Next time it's her head." He walked calmly over to Law, and this time Law managed to get the first hit in. Lucci dropped the gun as Law's fist slammed into his kidney, robbing him of his ability to breathe, but just as fast he aimed a kick at the other man, and Law hit the ground, but before he could get up, Lucci slammed his boot down on his wrist, crushing it to the ground and Law heard bone snapping.

Lucci reached for the instrument table and held up a scalpel, his face twisted into a smile that made Law's skin crawl.

Tré was screaming behind her gag, and she shut her eyes as Lucci thrust the blade through Law's hand and into the earthen floor.

The resounding cry of agony made her blood run cold as another scalpel pierced Law's other hand, and she pleaded with every deity in her knowledge for help.

Especially as Lucci turned towards her and grabbed a third scalpel.

He smirked. "Look on the bright side, sweetheart," he cooed devilishly. "At least you get to be near the man you love as you die." And with that, he plunged the blade into Tré's pelvis.

...

Ace was tearing the office apart while Zoro called in every single favor he had to the higher ups for help. Sabo had traced the phone call from Law's cell to Meiji University, and Ace had found the man's abandoned car.

"He was gonna tell us who the killer is! He figured it out!" Ace wanted to pull his hair out at this point and suddenly Sabo rushed in.

"Lucci isn't here, so we've pretty much got permission to do what we want; and Captain Tashigi had told me that the freakin' CIA is getting involved!" Ace felt relief sweep through him, but that was quickly diminished as Zoro hung up.

"His phone was found in a trash can at the gas station that we found Ayane in." He said.

"And Tre's phone is dead, so we can't call and trace that either." Ace's brow furrowed. "How the fuck are we going to find them?!"

A new voice joined in. "Have you thought of tracking her hearing aid?"

Zoro turned to see the lead agent of the Japanese FBI: Director "White Chase" Smoker.

"Fuckin' A, we're saved!" Sabo breathed. "If I can follow the electrical signal from it, we can find them!"

"Assuming he kept them together. Law may be dead." Smoker said.

Ace frowned severely. "He's not." He tried to be optimistic. They'd saved Ayane, they could save the others.

Couldn't they?


	9. Chapter 9

Law tried to block out the agonized screams from Tré as cuts were made into her flesh, and the pain that radiates from his hands almost made his pass out, and part of him would have welcomed the darkness, but the other half of him had to be alert.

"Relax, girl." Lucci's voice was dark and teasing. "You aren't ready for the main event." He palmed the scalpel and dragged the tip of the blade gently down her neck to the buttons on the shirt and popped them one by one.

"Nnng!" Tré screamed behind her gag, and Law turned to see Lucci unbuckle the chains on her feet. "GTTFKKWY!"

Law slowly worked his hands from the ground, trying to pry the surgical tools out of his skin before Lucci did something else. Tré was sobbing now, and one of her legs kicked out as her former boss pressed his hips against hers and pinned her to the wall.

"Tell me something, Doctor Suijouki," he purred, a malicious smile on his face. "Are you a virgin? I bet you are."

Law wrenched one of his hands up, ignoring the pain of torn muscle and skin as the blade went all the way through his palm. He rolled over and yanked the second blade up with a silent groan of pain. Mercury colored eyes darted around the room, looking for anything that could disarm Lucci long enough to get him away from Tré.

Who screamed as Lucci's hand went up her thighs and under the shirt.

...

Smoker was the third highest ranking member of the CIA, and as the man gave the orders for the SWAT teams and policemen to follow the directions that Sabo printed out that traced the electrical signal coming from Tre's hearing aid.

"Ayane said that their grandfather had a tracking device added to the implant in case it got lost," Zoro said as he, Ace, and another detective made their way to their cars.

Sabo had his laptop in his hands, frowning. "So Lucci hacked Tré's computer and sent the email to Law." The blond cursed. "That's why he didn't want Law looking into her disappearance, he knew that Law would figure it out!"

Ace held up the picture that Law had shown him, "This is him. Lucci was in the same goddamn class at Tssuda! He's maybe 15 years younger here,-"

"He looks so different..." Zoro murmured. "Are you positive this is Lucci?"

Ace shrugged. "That's what Law we t to find out! He went to the college that Tsuuda graduated from to find out if that was actually Lucci, but he gets fucking kidnapped in the parking lot!"

Smoker came back into the room, "Listen up. We know where Tré is, but that doesn't mean that Law is there too." He gave a noise of disgust. "And if I know Lucci the way I think I do, then that son-of-a-bitch has plans for anyone who manages to find him."

Zoro shut the clip of bullets into his gun and cocked the thing. "Good thing we've got a plan of out own then, huh?"

Smoker nodded, blowing a stream of smoke out of his mouth. "You got that right." He turned to the team of 30+ officers and agents in the room and hallway. "Alright, move out!"

...

Tré torqued her body to the side as Lucci's hand touched her, moving to go to the spot between her thighs, and the shriek she let out died in her throat as she caught sight of Law, making a shushing motion with his bloodied hand.

The two-by-four slammed into Lucci's temple as sent the man sprawling to the ground. He dropped the board and ran to Tré, pulling the loosened shackles off of her legs and pulled the bandana from her mouth.

"Your hands!"

"Shhh!" He went to work on the clasps binding her wrists to the wall, and Tré let out a sound that was mixture between a son and a sigh.

"I'm sorry-why the hell did you come here?! I didn't mean for you to get involved! I thought I could-" Law tugged one of her hands free and Tré gasped as the limb regained feeling from being up for so long.

"Stop talking!" He whisper-yelled. "I got myself involved in this to save you, and don't think it's simply because you're my assistant or friend. You're way more than that." He freed her other hand and Tré collapsed, her body weak from lack of expertise and nutrition.

Law grimaced as his hands throbbed, and blood steadily dripped from the wounds. Tré struggled to stand, and Law shifted to pick her up when a gunshot rang out. The bullet grazes Law's face, and he felt the skin of his cheek split.

Lucci was stalking towards them, glaring. Blood seeped from under his hair, no doubt from the blow to head.

"As much as I enjoy the thought of slicing and dicing a man for once, you're just too much trouble to be worth it, Trafalgar."

Tré bit her lip as the gun was aimed at them again. "Law-" she ran her hand over the wall, and grasped the chains that hung there. "Don't move." She whispered.

Lucci cocked the gun, "Oh well, guess I'll just have to find more victims." He smirked. "A couple this time, perhaps."

THWAK!

The heavy cuff on the end of the chain hit Lucci in the head with a sickening crunch and the man dropped wordlessly to the ground, the gun clattering into the shadows.

"Shit, Tré." Law gave the girl an incredulous stare before setting her down, moving towards the body and nudging it. "He's not dead, but Jesus Christ, woman..."

Tré looked up as red and blue lights flashed from outside, and the girl sighed heavily. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Footsteps could be heard from outside, and then the floorboards creaked from upstairs. Law grabbed the Glock from the ground and dragged Tré back, who rose an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Lucci was a cop, so for all we know, he had friends with the same sick mindset who may come here to help." He suddenly grew quiet as the basement door opened. A thin beam of light swept down, and Ace's voice suddenly calls out:

"Law! Tré! Are you guys alright?"

Law jogged over to the stairs and suddenly Ayane appeared, running at her cousin and throwing her arms around Tré, who cried out in pain.

"Sorry, honey!" Ayane apologized, backing away. Ace and Zoro looked around.

"Where is he?" Zoro asked.

"He's ri-" Law stopped.

Lucci's body was gone.

...

Tré swore violently as a needle was pushed into her skin and hooked up to an IV. She was leaning back on a gurney (because laying flat hurt too much), and picking at the bandages on her wrists and ankles that were in place from the cuffs digging into her skin. She was wearing a spare set of scrubs from the ambulance, and she watched as Law was forced into the vehicle.

"It's a flesh wound, Smoker-ya. Leave me alone." Smoker shoved the man, purposely hitting the gunshot wound in Law's side.

"Until both of you are fully recovered, by my standards, you're on temporary leave." He sneered at the death glare that came from Law, and Tré perked up as Ayane waved to her from outside.

"Everyone is searching the woods for Lucci!" She called out. "So you get some rest."

"I want food, not sleep." Tré mumbled. "I haven't eaten in 5 days!"

"That's why you have an IV." Law said. He took the medical kit from the young ambulance driver. "I can do it."

The kid didn't reply, he just walked off, Tré sighed and closed her eyes, envisioning the various scenarios that could have resulted in their deaths tonight. Lucci had definitely planned for the procedure, because there was a shelf of jars in the basement labeled with victims name, but no one needed to look inside to see what they contained.

There was an empty jar with her name on it.

Tré frowned suddenly, "Boss." Law glanced up, having resigned to allowing the triage nurse take care of his hands.

"What?"

"If this ever happens again," Law frowned and gave her a what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about? kind of look. "Don't look for me."

Law rolled his eyes. "I'm your superior; ergo, I can do whatever I please."

Tré gave an exasperated huff and winced as pain shot through her ribcage and radiates through her back. "Whyyyyy~" she whined. "You'll get killed."

The nurse left.

"Like I obviously did tonight."

Tré's face went deadpan. "Ha. Ha. Ha."

Law smirked and remembered what Ayane had told him a few days prior. "I already told you why. Use your brain; you're a genius, aren't you? What reason would someone have to place themselves in danger for the sake of another?"

Tré lowered her eyes and watched the people outside, walking around giving orders and exploring the derelict house that they'd been held in.

"Say it."

Law turned to look at Smoker, and flipped the man off with a smirk. Smoker stormed over to them.

"I don't have to." Law said, and he suppressed a laugh at the ampoules look on Smoker's face.

Tré nudged Law's leg with her foot. "Tell me!" As Smoker arrives, she repeated the demand over and over until Law suddenly leaned over and silenced her with a kiss.

"The boss wishes to speak." He said, nodding to Smoker.

"There'll be none of that at work." The director said, and Law rolled his eyes.

"At least I have Simone who loves me. You're destined to die all alone."

"And you're destined to have your dignity crushed because you got beat down by a man who is not only physically weaker than you, but shorter too."

Law shrugged off the insult. "He gave me an ultimatum." Smoker opened his mouth to speak when a female voice cut him off.

"Tré-chan!"

Tré looked up and beamed, "Ran-oneeechan!"

Smoker looked lethal. "Get back in the car! I didn't tell you to come here!"

Ran snorted. "I came to see how my little buttercup was doing!" Tré smiled as Smoker and Ran started arguing, and the EMS crew shut the door of the ambulance.

Tré smiled. "So, we're on vacation?"

Law nodded. "It would seem so."

Tré grinned. "Doctor Who marathon?"

Law gave the girl a smirk. "Yes."

...

They think they've won. That they've beaten me. They may have won the battle, but I will win the war.

This game is just beginning.


End file.
